Bojan Todosijevic, "Issues
and Party Preferences in Hungary: A Comparison of
Directional and Proximity Models," Party Politics, 11
(January, 2005), 109-126.

First Paragraph:
The assumption that citizens elect their representatives
according to the political goals they wish to be realized
has often been regarded as essential for representative
democracy. When scholars started to analyse empirically the
determinants of citizens' voting choices, it became obvious
that the process included more than simply rationally
selecting from available policies.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1. Party membership of the sampled MPs
Table 2. Eight policy preference items
Table 3. Average scores on eight policy issues among MPs and
voters
Table 4. Position of parties on the Left-Right continuum
assessed by the MPs and voters
Table 5. Regression coefficients (beta) for proximity and
directional effects of eight specific issues (separate
equations)
Table 6. Directional and proximity effects of the issues
(first block) and of the issues and L-R self-placement.
Entries are standardized beta coefficients and R2
Table 7. Regression coefficients (beta) for proximity and
directional effects (separate equations) of issues and L-R
self-identification, for respondents with higher and lower
educational levels

Last two paragraphs in the conclusion:Examination of the interaction of political
sophistication with the two models of issue voting partly
confirmed the hypothesis that issue voting is less common
among the politically less sophisticated. However, Maddens's
(1996) hypothesis that the proximity model, by requiring
greater political sophistication, should be more pronounced
among the better educated was not confirmed. While both
effects are stronger among the better educated, the
difference in favour of the directional model remains at all
levels of political sophistication. These findings apply to
the effects of issues and to L-R self-placement.

If the present findings are compared with findings in
other countries, then Hungarian voters do not appear
exceptional. The directional model in general seems better
equipped to capture the effects of issue voting.